The Tricksy Fire
by Abyssal Angel
Summary: A firework Festival, a mystery, investigation... betrayal... Followed by a rather glorious beatdown. Join our three intrepid heroes as their vacation plans go a little sideways. Just a little. DISCLAIMER: If you recognize it, I don't own it. I only own myself.


D&D Session from first day of Renn Fest on 15 Feb 2020 in a short style campaign with premade unnamed characters.

Characters:

Honso the Dragonborn Paladin (me)

Durin the human Rogue

Sinister the Lizardkin Cleric

Setting:

We're on our way to a firework festival that's been advertised in the area. Evidently it's going to be pretty spectacular as a local famous wizard has custom made a super firework to light off that would be unlike anything anyone has ever seen, guaranteeing a spectacular and long show with it alone.

Our group has decided to take a break and head out to enjoy the festival.

Story:

Honso, Durin, and Sinister were walking up the road towards the festival grounds, chatting idly and looking forward to what promised to be rather spectacular fireworks.

It's unfortunate, but the group is late. Their last job had a small hitch and they didn't finish it quite as quickly as they liked. Luckily the festival is meant to last for a few days, so while they're late, they should be able to catch the rest of the show, and are at least early enough to see the main event.

As they come upon the fairgrounds, the group slow and begin to tense. The grounds are eerily quiet. Immediately Honso prepares his weapons as the three approach the festival gate and push inside.

Ash and fire. Everything is burnt. What little is left standing has outlines of people that were vaporized. Each of them realize that no ordinary fire could have done this.

Sinister and Durin lead the way as they begin to investigate, while Honso covers the other two, keeping an eye out for threats, his longsword in one hand and shield in the other.

The group quickly find an object roughly in the center of the destroyed area. It appears to be the advertised main firework. It's in the shape of a woman, evidently done in the likeness of the mage herself, and made of paper strips covered in arcane script, giving the appearance of a female mage robed in white.

The three move forward to investigate, Honso included as he eyes the firework. He gets a little closer and notices it smoldering. Immediately wondering if it might be active, Honso speaks up, "Friends, I think we should-"

Too late, the firework blows up, only the main firework seems unharmed, albeit more on fire than before. Sinister leaps clear, but Honso and Durin take the brunt of the damage, dropping to half health.

Two things then happen roughly at the same time. The first, is that the fireball forms into the shape of a woman. It calls out, "Please! Free me!"

Immediately following this, three fire elementals form around the group. Each one looks like a two foot tall imp made of lavarock, with cracks revealing lava underneath. Each one curiously bears a symbol on its chest. One is a circle with a line through it, another is two symbols of infinity overlaying each other, and another is another infinity symbol with a line sticking up out of it with two lines parallel to the infinity symbol at the top of that.

The three prepare to fight, while Honso, suspecting the three elementals might be key to freeing the trapped lady, shouts back towards the flame, "My Lady, how do we free you?!"

Unfortunately there is no answer, as the flame has died down to a smolder once more. Tching and hoping to find some answers once the battle is over, and praying that it's not something like needing to kill them in a certain order and any other way causes bad things to happen, Honso and the others immediately begin to fight!

Being quicker than the others, Sinister draws out her water pouch and attempts to spell it at the elemental closest to her like a fire hose. It's unfortunately ineffective.

Durin attempts to stab the elemental closest to him. He does some damage, but gets attacked in turn by his elemental. Low on health, he retreats towards Honso.

Honso for his part, keeps his shield up and slashes downwards diagonally at his elemental with his longsword with one hand. It does a large amount of damage!

Meanwhile Sinister is having trouble with her elemental. She attempts the water trick once more to greater effect. Meanwhile the imp Durin retreated from had followed after him and dealt even more damage!

Despite this, Durin focused his efforts on the far more damaged elemental Honso had cleaved and finished it off with a stab while passing it from behind. The elemental immediately froze into stone, but slowly enough for Durin to free his dagger from it.

Honso upon seeing this, turned his attention to the elemental chasing Durin, which had shifted its attention to him. Rather than slash it as well, Honso bashed it with his shield, knocking it down and sending it skidding towards Durin, who immediately dropped upon it, stabbing it repeatedly until it too dropped dead.

At roughly the same time, Sinister used her mace to smash down on the head of the elemental she was facing, turning it to stone as well.

Once certain the battle was over, Honso called out, "All is well?"

"I am unhurt." Sinister called back, having dodged all of the elemental's attacks.

"I need healing." Durin responded, prompting Sinister to heal him while Honso healed his own wounds.

With their post battle wounds taken care of, they immediately began to inspect the bodies, now statues, of the elementals.

Honso tapped the symbol on the chest of the elemental he had killed with his gauntlet, producing a tink tink tink sound. "I suspect these symbols are important, if we are to free the lady from her prison," There was no thought of not freeing the lady even entertained in Honso's mind, freeing her a foregone conclusion as it was the right thing to do, and would likely provide a lead as to what happened here. "Though I know not what they are." Knowing where his strengths lay, Honso immediately moved once more to cover the other two while they investigated.

Durin, who knew nothing of the symbols as well, instead moved to the 'firework' turned prison to examine the arcane script written on all the strips, figuring he might glean at least something from it with the little bit of dabbling he'd done into the arcane in his past. He ripped off a strip to hold it to the light, but immediately upon being parted from the 'statue', the script disappeared from it, becoming useless, and he could discern nothing from the mess of overlapping strips that made up the 'statue/firework/prison'.

"Guys, I think I recognize this," Sinister said slowly, consulting one of the books in her satchel as she examined the symbols on the elementals.

"What is it?" Durin asked, turning to her and leaning forward eagerly. Honso politely ignored how the Rogue had leaned in a bit closer than strictly necessary, as the two's relationship had been obvious to him from the start.

"I think its alchemy," Sinister answered. "Yes, see, this symbol is for Sulfer, this one is for-"

Honso, already on a hair trigger, leapt to cover the two with his shield in place as the firework once more 'exploded'. Sinister once again escaped unscathed, but Durin and Honso both took damage, though luckily with Honso's quick thinking and shield, the flames parted around the two, only dealing a quarter damage, but ironically leaving them both roughly in the same state as the last time it exploded, much to Honso's annoyance and Durin's grief.

"Hurry! The first thing you do is-" the fire had once again formed into a woman and spoke, before seeming to be muffled by something else. The fire, now that the three were paying closer attention, seemed to fly into the elementals and revive them.

Honso, now rather annoyed as having to destroy something he'd already destroyed once was a pet peeve of his, loosened his hold on his shield, though leaving it strapped to his arm, and took his long sword with both hands and cleaved it down onto the elemental with a loud "GRAHHH!"

That elemental immediately turned back to stone.

They say third time's the charm, as Sinister tried once again, with the last of the water from her water skin, to hose down the elemental. It came out in a torrential blast and immediately the elemental froze in shock in what would have otherwise been a fairly comical position.

And as for Durin… he managed to do some damage to his elemental, which it returned in kind. Honso instantly came to the rogue's aid, flanking the elemental from behind and once again using his shield to smack it down, knocking it to the ground and allowing Durin to easily finish it off, turning it once again into stone.

Immediately upon the fight being over, Honso grabbed his statue and began dragging it a ways away, growling, "I am NOT getting blown up again!"

The other two shared a look, agreeing, and grabbed one each and dragged them after Honso, the three dropping them once they'd left the range of the last two blasts.

Now relatively safe, Durin turned back towards Sinister and asked, "Now, what were you saying about recognizing the symbols?"

Honso stood at the ready once more while Sinister explained, though his attention was admittedly more focused on the firework/prison this time. So it came as no surprise as it once again exploded, though this time the three were well out of range.

The firey silhouette of the woman formed once more. "Must I do everything myself? It's really very simple! Toss the elementals into the fire!"

The three shared a look as the woman was once again muffled and the fire once more shot towards the Elementals and revived them once more.

The three prepared to fight, and Sinister attacked hers with her mace.

Unfortunately before Durin or Honso could do anything, the other two imps suddenly made a beeline for Sinister.

"Oh no you don't!" Honso growled, swinging his sword two handed once more. Unfortunately only the tip of the sword caught the imp this time, causing it to yelp and leap forward in a hurry, moving even faster towards Sinister.

Durin at least had more luck, and as soon as his imp elemental tried to take off, the rogue neatly closelined the creature with his dagger, nearly beheading the thing and causing it to turn to stone immediately.

Meanwhile Honso leapt at the imp trying to get to Sinister while she was finishing off her elemental, cleaving it once again with a roar.

With the battle once again done, Honso once more picked up his imp and carried it over to the firework, which was still smoldering and paused, studying it carefully.

Durin and Sinister once again followed suit, Sinister commenting, "Is it just me, or are these things getting weaker?"

"It's not just you," Durin agreed.

Sinister moved forward with hers towards the smoldering firework, only to pause as Honso, who'd been in front, hadn't moved any closer.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"The lady said to throw it into the fire," Honso explained. He then pointed. "That thing is not on fire, it is smoldering. I will wait till it explodes once more, then punt it into the flames." If Honso's emphasis on the word 'punt' had been a tiny bit vicious, the other two didn't comment.

"It'd be too late," Sinister said, concerned, "You saw how the flames seemed to go into these things and wake them up? If you wait till the explosion to do it, it'll wake up by the time you've kicked it into the fire and already absorbed it, forcing us to fight them again."

Honso seemed to consider this for a moment. "You speak wise." He then immediately drop kicked his imp into the smoldering flame of the firework with some relish, upon which the statue disintegrated into dust and disappeared.

Sinister immediately followed up with hers, followed by Durin.

(It was at this point that our DM exclaimed in surprise as we had ended up throwing them into the flame in the correct order completely on accident, much to our amusement.)

Immediately afterwards, the firework exploded once again, only this time the paper wrapping making up the statue disintegrated in the explosion. The flames grew bigger as the woman's voice from earlier began to cruelly laugh.

The flames shot up and coalesced into the form of a red chromatic dragon, which landed back down and faced the three, smirking cruelly. Though its size betrayed its youth as it barely outsized a simple horse and cart, it would not do to take such a foe lightly.

"I knew you fools would release me!" It laughed once again, before focusing on us once more, it's eyes glittering, "In exchange for this service, I will allow for two of you to live. You will have to choose which one of you will die."

Sinister and Durin exchanged a single glance, but before they could even open their mouths, Hanso let out a scream of rage at the evil creature's trick and betrayal of their good will, for nothing made the Dragonborn Paladin angrier than betrayal. Toss in the fact that this is a chromatic dragon, one of Tiamat's brood and diametrically opposed to one born of Bahamut, which Hanso _is_, and then on top of even _that_ this complete and utter bitch attempted to turn his friends against each other with its poisoned words? Hanso was _**livid.**_

Immediately borne upon that scream, Hanso raced forward to cleave the dragon's face in twain.

"There's always one," it commented smugly, dodging Hanso's initial attack with contemptuous ease, allowing the blade to skim by its head with the barest of margins, mocking Hanso's attempt and drawing itself up to intimidate the Paladin, only to let out a screech of pain and anger as an arrow immediately pierced the side of its chest, and it turned its head to focus on Durin, who immediately ducked behind Sinister, muttering a reflexive, "I'm squishier than you two," at Sinister's look.

(Nat 20)

The Dragon had bigger problems to deal with though, as its inattention to the closer target proved deadly. With another roar, Hanso cleaved his sword into the Dragon's neck, the blade glowing with the energies of a Divine Smite, and biting out a chunk of flesh so deep that the wall of its esophagus was exposed.

(Nat 20)

The brood of Tiamat turned murderous eyes towards the Paladin, only for its inattention to once again prove costly as Sinister ran forward and slapped a darkly glowing hand against the dragon's wing and casting Rend Wounds, making the wing and part of the torso flash sickly black for a moment before the wing began to rip and tear and wither away.

The dragon screamed in pain and moved back to gain a little distance from them, as they'd proved far more dangerous than they had first seemed. It attempted to fly on reflex, only for one of its wings to respond and the other to drag listlessly on the ground, still rotting away.

It's fear quickly turning to rage, the dragon breathed in, and though the three attempted to dodge, they all got blasted by dragon fire. Hanso weathered it with his shield up to protect him, but failed to cover for the other two.

Luckily Durin was able to leap away, but Sinister took the brunt of it, laying on death's door, her only saving grace perhaps, being the small hole in the dragon's neck which had diverted just a tiny amount of the flames that Hanso had put there earlier.

The Paladin lowered his shield and took a glance towards Sinister. Seeing the state she was in, his rage rose to new heights, and he shifted to tap the Cleric with the edge of his boot, transferring the last of his divine healing towards her and saving her life, even as he growled out to the dragon, "_**My turn.**_"

With one deep breath, the Dragonborn spat out blue lightning which immediately carved a deep scorch across the face of the dragon, wounding it badly and making it screech in pain once more.

At his audacity, the dragon opened its jaws to breathe another flame upon the Dragonborn, only to miss Durin tossing his two daggers towards the Dragon's face in an attempt to blind it. One went wide, but the other? The other lodged down its throat, hitting at just the right moment and just the right place to destabilize the Dragon's breath attack.

The Dragon's head and upper torso immediately exploded, raining gore everywhere in a parody of the fireworks display the trio had come here to see in the first place.

Hanso avoided getting covered by virtue of raising his shield to block the deluge, incidentally sparing Sinister as well as he was still next to her.

With no other recourse, the trio searched the rest of the festival. Durin quickly discovered that one of the few things to escape being vaporized by the dragon's flames in what must have been the initial attack on the festival by the dragon were the copper coins the late festival goers had, and Sinister helped him gather roughly eleven silver worth of copper coins.

As for Hanso, he looted the dragon for bones and scales and whatever else he might find that might prove valuable and/or might be useful to take to a smith later. He did contemplate for a moment the rumor he'd heard once that eating a dragon would imbue yourself with its power, before discarding the idea as a bit too close to cannibalism for his tastes, made worse when you consider the dragon is technically his cousin…

The End

AN: Yes, we somehow rolled two Nat 20's back to back, turning what had been a campaign that had killed 90% of the people who'd tried it that day, into the fastest tag team the DM had ever seen. Even the last group who had beaten the dragon just before had come down to the wire where it was down to one last round whether one or the other would die. The fact that our cleric nearly got TPKed and yet got pulled back had our DM admitting his emotions had been all over the place during the whole thing. It was freaking amazing and I loved it. Did take three hours though…

AN2: Also while I was legitimately angry, my sudden rush to attack the dragon like I had was actually a calculated move on my part. I actually have a bit of a thing against chromatic dragons (honestly this character almost seemed tailor made for me) and I knew whatever it said it would not hold to, and the only chance we would have against it is if we fought it together, so I pre-empted the chance for the bitch's words to take hold and poison the other's minds and attacked. I may have gone into a rage, but when I rage, I am cold and analytical and strike with the highest precision against my foes to do the most damage. Like _lightning_. (Seriously. Tailor. Made. Honestly…)


End file.
